How do I know if I need to see a psychologist? 6 Tips

Sometimes it is not easy to know if the discomfort is serious enough to take the step.

Knowing when it is time to see a psychologist is not always easy. At the end of the day, psychological problems can take a wide variety of forms, and it is difficult to talk about them inIt is difficult to speak of a specific profile of the person who attends psychotherapy consultations.

Depending on the social context in which we live, our needs and preferences, and even our personality, the reasons why we may need professional help vary greatly.

Thus, it is relatively normal that between detecting a discomfort and going to a psychology center for the first time, a period of time passes in which the patient asks himself.... How do I know if I need a psychologist? Let's take a look at some key tips and ideas to help you make the best decision.

How to know if you need a psychologist

Mental health has gone from being a field in which "the crazy" were stigmatized to one in which it is understood that the mind is too complicated to be classified into "healthy" and "sick" categories. Now we understand that psychological problems, regardless of their severity, fall within normality: the rare thing would be not to have gone through any of them at some point in our lives..

For this reason, many people are not clear about how to decide which is the line that is supposed to be crossed in order to have a good reason to go to therapy. In the following lines we will see several guidelines to know when you need a psychologist.

1. Focus on the suffering

There are people who consider whether or not to go to a psychologist simply because they do or have done something that someone has told them is wrong.

However, this is not a good criterion for considering whether to go to a psychotherapy consultation, because the focus of the therapy is not exactly on the ethical scales that each person follows, but on the idea that each person follows, but on the idea of whether or not there is suffering associated with a behavior. Suffering in the one who performs it or in the people around the one who performs it.

On the other hand, the same behavior can be labeled immoral by one person, and totally normal by another. Moral dilemmas, although relevant, are not the priority of psychotherapy.

2. Make sure it is psychological

Psychologists treat cognitive and emotional problems, but not those that have to do with physical pain. No, headaches don't count either.

That's right, in the event that there is a physical ailment that generates psychological sequelaeIf you are suffering from a mental health problem, such as stress or obsessive ideas, then it is appropriate to consider whether to go to psychotherapy or not.

3. Does the discomfort keep you away from a normal life?

When deciding when to go to the psychologist, this question is key, as it helps to understand the severity of the discomfort experienced.

4. Delimit the type of problem you are experiencing

First of all, we must try to understand where the problem that makes us suffer or makes us feel bad begins and ends.

The first thing to ask yourself is if the problem is mainly related to oneself or not; if the problem is clearly related to one's own life.If the problem is clearly related to the context and not to oneself, it is not worth going to therapy. For example, if a homosexual person is homosexual and at the same time feels very well with his life, he should not go to therapy even if some people treat him as someone sick, since in this case the problem is only homophobia and this does not cause a significant psychological wear.

However, the answer to the question of whether the problem is in oneself or in others will usually not be very clear, since psychology also has to do with the way in which people relate to their environment and this affects them.

In any case, it should be kept in mind that it is possible that one may have a problem oneself by experiencing a lot of suffering and that the responsibility for the problem lies with others. An example of this would be the discomfort experienced when suffering harassment.

5. Ask for advice

This is an important resource that is often underutilized. Asking for the opinion of friends and family helps to gain an interesting perspective, because although it may seem paradoxical, others are able to give us more information about what is happening to us than we have ourselves by simply living those experiences. Emotional involvement can distort our knowledge about our lives.

6. Ask yourself if the problem is recurrent

If the discomfort lasts only a few hours or a few days and you think it will go away in a short time, in most cases you will not need the help of a psychotherapist. The exception to this has to do with traumatic events such as the loss of a loved one or suffering an accident. In these cases, you are more likely to require help because of the possibility of developing sequelae, although not always.